Retailer Tesco wants to expand its
procurement team to maximise the buying power of its operations across Europe.

The supermarket has recently advertised for
eight roles in categories including IT, professional services, marketing and
energy. Desirable skills included European experience and a second language.

Odette Beattie, manager, resourcing, corporate
purchasing and marketing at Tesco, told SM
these are of particular importance as the company is looking to leverage
the buying power of both the UK and Central European operations.

“What we’re in the process of doing is
looking at how we can start to work with our Central European businesses and
start to procure for them and obviously by doing that we leverage size and
scale,” she said.

She added the company aims to attract dedicated
purchasers. “We’re looking for a world-class procurement background, people
that understand and are dedicated to procurement as opposed to people who have
maybe worked in another function and fallen into it,” she said.

The procurement team at the company is
responsible for an annual non-retail spend of over £6 billion, buying in goods
and services, from plastic bags to employee mobile phones.

Beattie explained the function has seen its
stock rise recently. “Procurement, in any market economy in which we’re
operating is rising to the top because companies are starting to focus on cost
and of course the quickest way to win back money and reduce cost is to spend
less. That is when you really need your good buyers and procurement to come
into it. The procurement guys are about to change the way that Tesco buys.”